1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a piston bale press for forming rectangular bales of crop material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such piston bale presses are for instance disclosed in WO 02/074065, EP 0870 425, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,706, which are incorporated by reference in their entireties.
A known embodiment of an agricultural piston bale press comprises a pressing piston arranged in a bale chamber to form bales of crop material, a main driving mechanism to drive the pressing piston; an intake device to take in crop material, and a stuffing device to stuff crop material taken in by the intake device and to load the stuffed crop material into the bale chamber. The stuffing device comprises a feed passage and a stuffing mechanism. The stuffing mechanism comprises a tine arm supporting tines and a drive mechanism. The drive mechanism is configured to move the tine arm along a stuffing trajectory to stuff crop material in the feed passage.
A drawback of the known bale press is that the selective movement of the tine arm along a load trajectory and one or more stuffing trajectories requires a relative complex drive mechanism.